The Saga continues in Sibu, a small town in Sarawak, Borneo (now Malaysia) where John and Muriel could continue their educational work with the people from Fujian who had emigrated there in years past. The earlier part of their story can be found HERE.
John and Muriel soon became concerned about the illegal, but common practice of buying and selling children. After rescuing several abused children, the Pilleys started raising funds for the erection of a Children’s Home. In 1951, the Methodist Children’s Home was built and dedicated.
Dedication of the Methodist Children’s Home in Sibu, Sarawak, Borneo
Children’s Home, first group of children at the home.
Children swinging at the Methodist Children’s Home in Sibu ~1952
Following a much needed furlough in 1951, the family returned to Sarawak in 1953 and settled in Sarekei, a very small town near the mouth of the Rajang. Over the next five years, the couple established a new school and church and continued their work of advocating for children. Robin and Gail left Sarekei to attend Woodstock School in India, where Robin graduated in 1957. The family reunited in the U.S. in 1958. Muriel, John and Marilyn returned to Sibu in 1959. Robin and Gail were in college at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Back in Sibu, John resumed a heavy schedule of teaching and administering the Methodist Secondary School. The work was difficult and demanding and his health began to deteriorate. In the fall of 1960, he suffered a serious heart attack and died on November 12, 1960, at the age of 53. He is buried in Sibu.
Muriel at John Pilley’s grave, Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Muriel and Marilyn returned to the U.S. Over the next 42 years, Muriel pursued her own educational goals, attaining an Ed.S. degree in English Literature. But her heart was still with her friends in China and Borneo. She worked tirelessly to bring students to the U.S. for higher education opportunities.
She made several trips back to Borneo and in 1989, she took her granddaughter Andrea back to China for a visit. She died in Nashville in 2002, at the age of 94. In 2006, her daughter Gail took her ashes back to Sibu to be buried with John.
The Methodist Pilley Institute in Sibu is a junior college, named for John and Muriel Pilley in recognition of their educational service to the people of Sarawak. The Methodist Children’s Home is supported by the community and now is home to eighty children.